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WOMAN AND HOME 
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L AWYER BRONSON opened his safe 
deliberately, took out the document 
he was looking for, put his gold specta¬ 
cles astride his Roman nose and pro¬ 
ceeded to read the will of his late client, 
Elias Iligby, to the relatives assembled. 
The two middle-aged women present were 
the nieces of the deceased, born Eunice 
and Ruth Iligby. They had not met 
since their girlhood in a country town, 
and now they were both widows, with 
each a son and daughter. The elder 
niece, Eunice Mason, had changed from 
a healthy fresh-looking country girl to a 
careworn, anxious-looking woman, but 
showing in her face and manner, and 
cheaply fashionable clothing, that she was 
one who preferred style to comfort. This 
was apparent in her tightly corseted fig¬ 
ure. her high-heeled shoes, her tightly- 
gloved hands, and the white veil with 
large blinding black dots, that she wore 
over her face during the entire inter¬ 
view. Her daughter was herself in min¬ 
iature. And the boy already showed 
signs of the cigarette smoking, drinking 
habits prominent in him later. 
Ruth Winslow, who was a year or two 
younger than her cousin, had a comely, 
sensible face, showing the traces of care 
and sorrow, but underneath all the good¬ 
ness and common sense that had helped 
her to bear her troubles without sinking 
under them. Her daughter was a sweet¬ 
faced girl of twenty, her son a bright, 
manly-looking boy of eighteen, both of 
them a great contrast to their cousins. 
Ruth and her children were dressed 
plainly, but comfortably, and with good 
taste. 
Lawyer Bronson cleared his throat and 
said : 
“By the will of my late client, Elias 
Iligby. there is left to be divided between 
his two nieces, children of his two broth¬ 
ers. his only living relatives, a small farm 
in the country of 40 acres and seven hun¬ 
dred dollars in cash, the elder niece hav¬ 
ing the privilege of choosing first, the 
farm or the money, and the younger niece 
to take whichever she declined. And the 
wish was expressed that the one who took 
the farm should live upon it.” 
“OJi, my!” exclaimed Eunice. “I guess 
T shall not be long in making up my mind 
which I will choose. Not for the world 
would I bury myself in the country ; not 
I ! I will take the money.” 
Her children both echoed her words 
warmly. Nothing would tempt them to 
leave the city, they said. That was the 
only place to live. 
The daughter of Eunice was a clerk in 
a fancy store, and in looks and deport¬ 
ment seemed to illustrate the cheap fancy 
articles she sold. The boy, Gifford, was 
naturally bright, and was errand boy in .a 
saloon, Eunice getting him the position 
because he could get higher wages there 
than elsewhere. She had taken him from 
school at fourteen. lie was now six¬ 
teen, and with his wages and her daugh¬ 
ter Amabell’s, and with what she earned 
herself as clerk in a department store, 
they rented a flat in Ilarlem, which they 
rallied home, though it lacked about every 
element of a true home. 
“But now,” said Eunice to her cousin, 
“I will take this money and buy furniture 
and open a boarding-house in a fashion¬ 
able part of the city, and take life a little 
easier, and get a good living.” 
Ruth doubted much whether the care 
and responsibility of mistress of a board¬ 
ing-house would be easier than what Eu¬ 
nice was now doing, but said nothing to 
mar her cousin’s jubilant hopes and ex¬ 
pectations. Her son, John, at once said: 
“We will move on to the old farm ; I 
long to live in the country.” 
11 is cousin Gifford looked down at him 
with an air of profound pity and con¬ 
descension ! 
“Live in the country! Well, no hay¬ 
seed in my hair, thank you! The city 
is good enough for me.” And his mother 
and sister fully agreed with him. Alice 
seemed inclined to join with her brother 
in his preference for the country, but 
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:: Making a Country Home :: 
By Marietta Holley 
“Josiah Allen’s Wife” 
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Ruth said : “We will decide this matter 
later; there is no hurry.” 
Ruth was working housekeeper in a 
rich family. After her husband’s death 
two years before, Ruth had got John a 
place to do chores for his board and at¬ 
tend school. Alice had been graduated 
from the public school the year her fa¬ 
ther died, and since then she had been 
companion and reader to a rich rela¬ 
tive of the woman for whom Ruth 
worked, so between them they had in the 
savings bank at the time of their uncle's 
legacy about three hundred dollars. Ruth 
and her cousin parted at the lawyer’s 
office. Eunice evidently full of pity for 
“But,” said Ruth, “it will take every 
penny we have in the bank to buy neces¬ 
sary things and get started.” But they 
assured her: “Nothing venture, nothing 
have,” an argument which she knew 
had some reason in it. So finally, after 
long indecision, and many consultations, 
Ruth finally decided on making the ven¬ 
ture. 
It was nearly the middle of Winter 
when they settled the momentous ques¬ 
tion, and they mutually agreed to stay 
where they were until early Spring, 
knowing they would have nearly one hun¬ 
dred dollars more to help on with the 
farm, and also to get some necessary work 
her cousin who had the evil fortune to 
get a run-down little country farm, while 
she had the money to enable her to re¬ 
main in the city in a prosperous condi¬ 
tion. Her children also were full of pa¬ 
tronizing pity for their unfortunate 
young cousins, while they, full of youth 
and hope, felt themselves anything but 
un fortunate. 
John had a good plain education, and 
was a good worker, but he disliked the 
place where he was living. lie was help¬ 
ing in a grocery store. Alice also was 
dissatisfied with her home. Her mistress 
was a disagreeable, fault-finding woman, 
and nothing but Alice’s sweet disposition 
enabled her to get along with her. Ruth, 
too, although her mistress was a kind 
woman, was tired of working for other 
people, and she longed for a home of her 
own where she could have her children 
with her. She felt in her heart that any 
home, however humble, where they could 
be together would be welcome to her. 
Especially did she desire this on her 
children’s account. Although as yet John 
was steady and trustworthy, Ruth felt 
that his impulsive and rather impetuous 
disposition, might lead him into the temp¬ 
tation that always surrounds a city boy, 
especially one who has not the help and 
inspiration of a real home to safeguard 
him, and already had Alice’s pretty face 
attracted attention from quarters Ruth 
considered very undesirable. They both 
needed a mother’s constant care and 
watchfulness. But although so many rea¬ 
sons were urging Ruth toward the coun¬ 
try home, grave doubts arose as to the 
wisdom of leaving a certainty for an un¬ 
certainty. They were sure of a living 
where they were, but the children said: 
“Such a living!” 
done, which they could do where they 
were, to help in furnishing the almost 
u n fu ru ished farmhouse. 
After Ruth’s husband died she had 
sold at auction most of her household 
goods, but there were several articles of 
good old-fashioned furniture that were 
heirlooms in her own and hei husband's 
family that they were unwilling to part 
with, stored in a vacant chamber in the 
home of an old friend of Ruth’s, also 
household linen for bed and table, that, 
of course, were a great help to them in 
starting housekeeping again in the poorly 
furnished home. For Ruth had been to 
see the place (they could not all afford 
the trip), and although she had decided 
in making the move, her heart sank as she 
looked about her. 
The house was an old one, built of 
stone, containing three rooms below and 
four small rooms above. The kitchen 
was a wood addition to the back, the 
paint worn off, the windows broken, the 
pillars of the piazza and porch propped 
up by rough poles. A pile of lumber lying 
on the piazza floor showed that Mr. Iligby 
had contemplated some repairs upon the 
house and barn, which also needed re¬ 
pairs. The sitting-room, dining-room and 
parlor were large, but oh, how barren 
looking! Dust and dirt covered the 
rooms and scanty furniture, the paint 
was worn off in spots from the wood¬ 
work, the paper hanging in moldy strips. 
The windows were large, but not a shade 
or blind, and many lights broken. The 
floors where the carpets had been taken 
up were inch deep with dirt, and marred 
with unsightly spots, but they seemed 
to have been originally of good hard 
wood ; also the woodwork was handsome 
if it had been clean. The old carnets. 
Ruth decided, if washed, would make 
over into very good ones for the smaller 
rooms above. 
The pickets surrounding the door-yard 
were broken, the gate propped up by 
boards, the fences on the farm broken 
down in many places. The barn sadly 
needed repairs. But the neighbor with 
whom Ruth took her dinner said the land 
was good if it was half worked. Ruth 
went back with rather a faint heart, but 
determined to make the best of every¬ 
thing. 
Her own carpets had been sold, and she 
went to work making some rugs. On 
telling her mistress about it she said she 
could go up in the attic and take all the 
old clothing there she could find to make 
her rugs, and she would esteem it a favor 
to get rid of them, for moths had already 
began to work in them. 
Ruth took her at her word. She found 
old wool dresses of beautiful colors, un¬ 
derclothing, children’s discarded dresses 
of gay colors enough to carpet twice as 
many floors. As she had the most of her 
afternoons and all her evenings to her¬ 
self she cut the best of these into strips, 
and soon had balls of most beautiful col¬ 
ors. with plenty of-soft, dull shades for a 
background to set them off. She invested 
a quarter in a rug hook and paid a few 
cents for canvas on which to make them. 
She bought several papers of dyes and on 
washing day afternoons before she cleaned 
the laundry, she colored the old under¬ 
clothing the beautiful colors she needed. 
She took patterns of some oriental rugs 
of her mistress’s, with her consent, anil 
went to work, and by the time they were 
ready to move to the country she had six 
handsome rugs, which it would be hard 
to tell from Eastern ones without a close 
inspection. 
When she colored her material for 
rugs, she also dipped in crimson dye three 
pairs -of old crimson wool curtains she 
found, which had already suffered a little 
from the invasions of moths, but which 
being mended and colored looked as good 
as new, and they were of much better 
quality than she could have afforded to 
buy. These curtains, with the largest of 
her rugs, she thought would make her 
sitting room look bright and cosy. The 
wages the three had saved at the time 
they moved in April amounted to over one 
hundred dollars, so they had over four 
hundred dollars with which to commence 
their new life. 
They expected to go by rail, but, in 
looking about for cheap furniture John 
met a man who was closing out his busi¬ 
ness of market gardening in a hurry to 
accept an advantageous offer in the West. 
He offered his horse and covered wagon at 
so cheap a price that John proposed to 
his mother and sister the novel plan of 
buying the strong gentle horse and large 
covered wagon, and travelling to their 
new home in this slow but sure way. 
They must have a horse and wagon, 
and John said they would not find om¬ 
ega in so cheap as this, for he offered tin- 
horse and wagon both for fifty dollars, 
throwing in as a gift to John a good 
many things he did not care to pay the 
freight on in his long journey to the far 
Western State, and would not want to 
use in his new business. Among these 
articles was an old plow, rusty, but strong, 
spades, garden rakes, hoes, sprayer, hose, 
every article of which would prove use¬ 
ful to him. 
This man also sold them a small cook 
stove, a set of common wooden-bottom 
chairs, a small table and bureau, and two 
common bedsteads. The bedsteads wen- 
all marred and paintless, as were the 
chairs and bureau, and the stove yellow 
with rust, and they all looked so worth¬ 
less that John was not surprised when 
the man offered the whole lot to him for 
five dollars, and was glad to accept John’s 
work for two days helping them pack 
their better furniture, in lieu of tin- 
money, John having left his place was 
able to do this. 
(Continued on pttftc SOd .) 
